Funkadelic – ‘Maggot Brain’

From a technical point of view, ‘Maggot Brain’ is the greatest guitar solo that has ever been created. What you have here is a piece of improvised music, where an exceptional guitarist (in the form of Eddie Hazel) plays himself into corners, only to play himself out of them again. It’s a masterclass on the six-string, and despite the entire song being entirely instrumental (except for a small spoken word intro), this track sounds like the most perfectly put together piece of poetry.

Hazel didn’t have a lot of direction for the solo; he was given three chords and then told to play like he had just heard his mother had died, only to then play like she was still alive. You can hear that emotion, the sadness and then the elation, so perfectly in both halves of the song. No words could ever convey what that guitar solo does; it’s a thing of beauty.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – ‘Free Bird’

The ‘Free Bird’ solo came about because of a jam. When they performed live, Ronnie Van Zant needed a break halfway through the set, and the band figured the best way to do that was by playing an elongated guitar solo that let him have a breather. The crowd began to take to these jams so much that when it was time to actually record the song, the band thought it was best to add the solo at the end of it.

The result was a piece of guitar work that is forever etched in history. The solo is used as a joke sometimes, as people play it to soundtrack sudden bursts of adrenaline, but the reason the joke lands so much is that’s how it feels when that music kicks in. Imagine the most inspirational talk of your life, nothing will rev you up the same way that that ‘Free Bird’ solo does.

The Last Dinner Party – ‘Mirror’

When we talk about the greatest guitar solos of all time, we have a tendency to focus on the golden age of rock, and as such, nominations rarely leave the ‘60s and ‘70s. That’s fair enough, as it was during this period that guitar solos were a competition, and musicians would be adding more and more extravagant additions to pieces of music in a bid to outplay each other. The solo is different in the modern age; it can still flex technical muscles, but it also needs to elevate a song, be justified in its existence, and be flooded with emotion.

While the point of the guitar solo has changed from those days of rock, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some excellent offerings out there. One of the greatest examples comes in the form of ‘Mirror’ by The Last Dinner Party, one of the most stunning pieces of guitar playing recorded in the last ten years. A song of devotion and longing is taken to new heights with Emily Roberts unwavering fretwork. Despite only being around 30 seconds long, that’s all the time she needs to unleash a flurry of bends and pitched harmonics that mimic the broken heart which lingers throughout this track. When the band performs this song live, they all bow down to Roberts as she plays, and rightly so, as this is a guitar solo worthy of worship.

Guns N’ Roses – ‘November Rain’

Guns N’ Roses’ debut album, Appetite for Destruction, is filled with aggression and venom, which was very intentional. They were looking to destroy the hair metal scene running rampage in Los Angeles and figured this style of music was the best way to do it. As such, the majority of Slash’s guitar solos from that record are fast-paced and angry, similar to the rest of the album.

When they released Use Your Illusion I and II, they tapped into another style of music, one that touched upon love, loss, loneliness, and all things in between. It gave Slash more freedom to explore with his solos, and the result is some of the most beautiful guitar work ever laid on wax. His solo in ‘November Rain’ is one example in many of how well he is able to inject feeling into his music.

Jeff Beck – ‘Where Were You’

It’s one thing being able to write guitar solos that keep a listener engaged, but another thing entirely putting together entire songs that consist of just a guitar and still manage to take the listener on a journey. One of the best at this was Jeff Beck, and his song ‘Where Were You’ is one of the greatest examples.

“If you wanna hear his depth of emotion, sound and phrasing, and the way he could touch your soul, listen to ‘Where Were You’ of the Guitar Shop album… sit down and listen to it for four minutes,” said Brian May when talking about the solo, “It’s unbelievable; it’s possibly the most beautiful bit of guitar music ever recorded.”

The Beatles – ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’

The George Harrison song about his dedication to his guitar and how he finds comfort in the consistency of the notes it plays is a melancholic ode to the beauty of music. You can hear that wonderfully in the guitar solos that are sporadically placed around the song. Ironically, despite Harrison writing the track, it’s Eric Clapton who lends his fretwork to the number.

Clapton was brought in in a bid to keep the band in order, and wound up creating a piece of musical history. “What happened when Eric was there on that day, and later on when Billy Preston… I pulled in Billy Preston on ‘Let It Be’…it helped,” said Harrison, “Because the others would have to control themselves a bit more. John and Paul mainly because they had to, you know, act more handsomely.”

Picture Parlour – ‘Neptune 66’

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Ella Risi is one of the greatest guitarists in modern music. After catching Picture Parlour live recently, my opinion has only been further locked in, as for the entire set she moved her way up and down the fret like it was an extension of her body. As one of the most exciting rock bands on the planet at the moment, Picture Parlour needed a place on this list, but the main issue was choosing one song out of the many that could qualify.

‘Neptune 66’ is packed with attitude from the word go; it’s got a low rumbling bass, emotive vocals, and is everything you want from a band like this. As the track progresses, the band builds and builds, eventually leading up to Risi’s killer guitar solo, which has the song’s attitude in spades and manages to elevate ‘Neptune 66’ to intergalactic heights.

Turnstile – ‘SEEIN’ STARS’

While a lot of these solos are laced with anger and aggression, sadness and melancholy, or love and longing, the guitar can also be used to encourage the listener to just have fun. On Turnstile’s most recent album, NEVER ENOUGH, the band dabbled in a range of styles, but one of the most left-field is the disco-infused track ‘SEEIN’ STARS’.

The whole song is one that you can move to, and it’s only added to by the guitar solo. While the solo itself mimics the vocal melody of the song, it takes that melody to another level, as with bends and distortion, the power of the guitar is mightier than that of the vocalist.

Eaves Wilder – ‘Everybody Talks’

Another modern artist, Eaves Wilder’s newest album, Little Miss Sunshine, comes laden with excellent riffs, licks and solos. Influences from Cream to Pearl Jam to Wolf Alice can be heard in this stellar representation of modern rock, and while Wilder wears her influences on her sleeve, she still manages to produce something completely unique in the process.

There are plenty of great examples of her fretwork on this album, but one of the standout solos is in ‘Everybody Talks’. She shreds up and down the guitar on this solo, almost as if different parts of it are different voices contributing to the barrage of conversation that the song refers to. Using the guitar to create this chaos is incredibly effective, but you need the right person at the helm, and there’s simply no one better than Wilder. Little Miss Sunshine might only be her debut, but there’s a litany of excellent music to come from her, as while everybody might be talking, hers is a voice that truly stands out.

Jimi Hendrix – ‘Bold As Love’

Who the hell could write a list like this and not include Jimi Hendrix? The man improvised many of his solos, and yet was able to pack emotion into every single note. No matter which solo of his you choose, you know that it’s going to complement the song in a way that blows the minds of everyone listening.

‘Bold As Love’ is a great example of this, as Hendrix’s sweet serenade talks about a feeling that many have said is impossible to put into words, so he doesn’t bother. Instead, he lets his Fender do the talking, with a guitar solo that seems to dance around the extremities of falling in and out of love, all within a matter of minutes. While it might not be his most well-known tune, ‘Bold As Love’ is a Hendrix song that truly highlights how great a guitar player he is.